Post-Roman Britain

Vortigern

Compiled by Peter Kessler, 1 April 1999

The most hated man in Britain, as he later became known, was Vortigern
Vorteneu. The Welsh form of this is Gwrtheyrn
Gwrtheneu (the Thin).

Despite the name being synonymous with the man, Vortigern has long
been accepted as only a title, with Pictish, or perhaps Northern British overtones. It means
"Over-King", and there are some indications that, like his semi-legendary
forebears, his real name was Vitalis (Gwidol in Welsh) or Vitalinus (Gwidolin), though his
origins are obscure.

His name would almost certainly have been Roman in influence,
although he was probably aware of its Celtic version.

The north and west of Britannia was
only ever under Roman military rule, so Celtic traditions were still very strong there.
The other possibility, equally strong, put forward by Charles Thomas, is that Bede knew of
Vortigern as Vertigernus or Uuertigernus, representing a British name Wortigernos (see the
introduction on Gildas for a fuller explanation).

His power-base was always the area along the Welsh border, and while
he was High King, his eldest son Vortimer set up a thriving kingdom in Gwent. Vortigern himself appears to have
spent more of his time, and exercised more direct control in Caer Gloui (Gloucester) in his early
years.

His great grandfather is said to have been Gloyw Gwallthir (Long-Hair), one of the
city's supposed founders (Gloyw = Glou-, and Latin castrum (fort) = British caer
or Saxon cester). This name is still linked to the place itself in its nickname
of "Gloucester Long-Wall", but the appendage to Gloyw's name indicates he was a
long-haired Pict.

This is also born out to an extent in the name Vortigern itself.
"gern" was a Pictish (or pre-Pictish) word for leader.

Pictish descent was always
measured through the female side, so perhaps this explains the apparent conflict.
Vortigern could have possessed a Pictish female in his ancestry, a possible wife of Gloyw's, not unlikely if she was from the Southern Picts around Manau Guotodin or the Clyde.

The St Cadog ancestry shows too few generations to be
complete, but it is replicated in the King List for Vortigern's Powys, as similar ancestries are for other
kings, such as Gwent, Dyfed, and Gwynedd. The ancestry of Celtic kings was
very important to their prestige and their clan name, so even minor kings (who were
usually descended from greater royal houses anyway) would find an ancestry that linked
them to their royal title.

Vortigern became High King of
Britain in around 425, after years of building up his power and position. It's entirely
possible that, given the fact that the Romano-Britons at this time were still very much
following standard Roman policies on defence and their way of life, that he adjusted the
title to become Emperor of Britain.

The precedence would have been his own father-in-law,
Magnus Maximus, and the more recent claimant to Rome, Constantine III, who left Britain in
407. There was no possibility of following these two overseas to claim a now much
reduced Rome, even if the manpower was available, which it was not.

The title of emperor
would bear much more meaning to the Romanised Britons who were in command of Britannia,
before the mid-century Celtic resurgence began to take hold.

Between AD 380-400 Vortigern married Severa ferch Macsen (daughter of Magnus
Maximus,
the Roman general proclaimed emperor in Britain in 383, and responsible for large scale
changes in the way Britain defended itself before he left to pursue his claim to the
purple). Later, he married again. His children were: